Take a Peek

Here is my home away from home! I spend the

better part of my day here. My classroom is in an open area which houses the 2nd grade team and resource. My school is 50 years old and is falling apart. Our district has a bond election coming up and one of the items is a new school should it pass. I'm not familiar with district politics but we all have our fingers crossed for a new school. I have been at this school for ten years. I have taught Third grade, Reading Recovery/Dyslexia, Fourth Grade, Fifth Grade and now Second Grade. I love teaching. I grew up playing school with my dolls, sister and friends. The pictures were from when I first started unpacking for the school year. I have way more stuff in that room now. Thanks for looking!

We are going out of town for the Holiday weekend. Thanks LC for taking care of DevilDog while we are gone!

I hope you have a fun and restful one!

We did it!

Both my DS and I survived our first couple days of school! He is so excited about his class. His teacher did a great job talking about what they are going to learn and do this coming year because DS would not shut up about it. I really do love his enthusiasm for school and the excitement his teacher instilled in him for the coming year. I hope I have done the same for my class.

I had 15 students show up. It has been an easy couple of days. Three of the students I have had their siblings so I already know them and their families. I hope the other 2 show up this week and I get no more for the rest of the year! I can dream! I have more boys than girls, which could be good or bad. I'll have to see how things progress through the year.





Above is my third grader. He is growing so fast. Notice the messenger bag style of back pack. That was a must for back to school this year. He is really taken a notice in fashion and is very involved with the purchasing and wearing of his clothes. He takes after his mom.



Well, I'm exhausted and have a lot due this week at school so I will be busy, busy. Only 175 more school days til summer!

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Our First Day

of school is tomorrow. Both my DS and I have butterflies in our stomachs. He is worried about his new teacher because we missed "Meet the Teacher" due to me having to work at my school. He has a couple of boys in his class that he plays sports with. I know his teacher is going to have her hands full with them! I have butterflies due to the stress of do I have everything ready to go tomorrow. A couple of parents showed up for my "Meet the Teacher". I work at a heavily populated Spanish speaking school so many of my parents don't speak or speak very little English and makes communicating difficult. I talk using simple language and use gestures a lot. If you saw me, you would think I was playing a game of charades!

Well, I'm off to get a good nights rest!

Have You Seen This?

You must check out this site if you haven't! Katy Shops is a fabulous blog about all things wonderful and useful. And just about every Wednesday she post items that you can get for free! I just received in the mail a K'Nex set, like Legos, that my son had fun building a helicopter. I just signed up for this week for some colored pencils that I plan to take to my classroom and free museum tickets for my family. So click right over there have fun exploring her site. She also has a radio show. I haven't tuned in for that yet.

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday...

to my littlest niece. She turns one year old today. She is already walking, jabbering and getting into all kinds of mischief.

Bath Bombs

I love this store-Lush! I first heard about Lush through magazines. Celebrities were using and loving the products. I saw my first Lush store in Beverly Hill, California while attending a conference a couple of years ago. My group of teachers that I was there with, ventured out in the evening after the meetings. Well, we arrived too late and the store was closed so I could only drool through the window. When I arrived home, I searched the Internet and looked all through the site. I ordered the catalog and thumbed through the pages. Last December, while waiting to catch our plane in Orlando, I made my way to the Lush store in the airport! I was so thrilled. I ordered more than I could carry on the plane so I had some shipped home. DH was very nervous because I kept referring to them as my bombs and he knew that we would be detained due to security issues. We were not but it was funny at the time. Last week, I made my way to the Lush store on Decatur Street in New Orleans and picked up some more bath bombs. Even my DS picked out one that he liked. While chatting with the salesgirl she said that one may be opening in my city soon. I was ecstatic! I will be one of the first customers.

What is the best way to restore your happy state of mind? Soaking in a tub that smells so gorgeous. A bath bomb is not a cube, it's a huge round circle but sometimes they can be other shapes like a heart or biscuit. When you put the bomb in your tub it will burst and explode with a mass of fizzing and some will fill the tub with confetti or flower petals. After it has fizzed out, you are left to enjoy the calmness as you breath in all the fragrance and beneficial natural scents. Lush has the perfect balance of essential oils to relax you.

Due to the busyness and stressful time of year for me,Back to School, I will be enjoying a bath bomb in the near future. Hope you will try one soon also!

Fun in New Orleans

We took a swamp tour with Dr Wagner's Honey Island Swamp Tour. He came recommended by a friend at work. (Thanks Stephanie!) It was so amazing and the things we learned along the way were so neat. The Cajun tour guide was very knowledgable and loved his swamp and it showed. Below are a couple of photos from the tour.

We visited the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. It was a cool place to cool off! The exhibits were fantastic. We got to pet sting rays and a baby shark. The penguins were cute and so were the otters. We wondered all over that place. We also saw an IMAX film. We saw Hurricane on the Bayou. It was a moving story of how the wetlands are disappearing around the coastal areas in Louisana. I cried during the film but I cry at almost everything. Below are a couple of photos from the aquarium.

The last place we visited was the Audubon Zoo. It was very hot and not very enjoyable. However, it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. The zoo is ranked one of the top zoos in the country. We ventured in to the Reptile House, to beat the heat, during feeding. It was pretty gross! The zoo lost very few animals and suffered little damage from the hurricane. The winds from the hurricane bent all the bamboo trees. I have a picture below of them for you to see.

The trip was short and sweet. We had a great time exploring New Orleans. Our budget couldn't take another big trip since we had spent a week at Disney in December 2006 and are going back again. Now I need to scrap all 110 pictures I took on this trip. I am so far behind in scrapbooking.

We're Back

We arrived back from New Orleans Thursday evening as the dirty side of the Hurricane was making its way over our city. It took us so long to get home and then we had to get ready for work the next day. Today was my first official day back. It was a work day and my Principal let us work in our rooms all day. My room is just about ready. For lunch today she had our lunch catered from Olive Garden and the superintendent was there along with some others from the Central Office to celebrate our success. We made Recognized due to our TAKS scores last year. Something to definitely celebrate.

Below I am going to share some pictures from New Orleans. It was a hot, not crowded place and we had a great time sightseeing and eating! The above picture is the Superdome for their football team.Above is our hotel. We stayed at the Hampton Inn Convention Center. I didn't want to stay in the French Quarter since we had our son along on this trip. It was an old mill converted into a hotel. It was very open and lofty feeling. The flowers were sitting on a table in front of the elevators, so you got a nice smell coming and going. They are real! If you look in the background you can see the loftiness of the lobby. Our room had super soft beds that were high up. They had little step ladders to help you crawl into them. And the ceilings were very high as well.

The view out our window. There was a nice green space next door. Just pass the tall building is the French Quarter.

This building is on Decatur Street. I love the balcony. The flowers were not very colorful since it was so hot. I would love to have a chair up there and people watch!

These building were along Royal Street. I love the architecture in the French Quarter area. The ironwork with all the swirls and the cute canopies just add so much charm. We didn't linger down there once it started to get dark. The atmosphere changes and you can sense it. Also, I didn't want my son to experience too much!

If you ever get to New Orleans you have to make a stop here, Cafe Du Monde, to eat beignets. Be careful not to laugh while eating or you will end up blowing powder sugar all over your dining partners!

These pictures are from another favorite area of New Orleans, the Garden District. In this area are beautiful old homes. The pictures are not great because we were in a moving car. There is a street car that use to run down St Charles Street but since Hurricane Katrina it is not operating so we had to drive it ourselves.

Every where we went we always asked about Hurricane Katrina and how they were impacted by this terrible storm. The stories the people shared with us were awful and brought tears to my eyes. We drove through areas devastated by the hurricane but I didn't take pictures. You would be absolutely shocked. The storm happened two years ago and people are still struggling to get their homes and their lives back.

Tomorrow I'll share the fun excursions we did.

Wedding

We attended our friends wedding Friday evening. It was a lovely wedding. The bride was gorgeous and the groom was handsome. To keep the peace I had my son play photographer, so the pictures are not the best but it kept him busy while waiting for the couple to arrive at the reception. Thanks for looking!

The Brides family taking pictures after the ceremony. The bride asked my mom when she was about five years old to be her grandmother. My mom has enjoyed being an adoptive grandmother. My parents were escorted into the chapel right before the parents were seated. My parents are not in this picture above.

The brides cake. The bride collects Precious Moments. The one sitting on the table was from my parents. It is the couple leaving in the get away car after the wedding. A cute touch.

The delicious grooms cake. Both the bride and groom are part of the Church's music team so the cake had music notes dancing around the sides of the cake. And the chocolate covered strawberries were a hit!

This was a hit by all the children there. The candy bar! As you were leaving the reception, you got to fill a small bag with all this wonderful sweets.

Thrifty Finds

This morning I had a team meeting for my CTMH stamping/scrapbooking group. I sell this stuff to support my addiction. Just started in April and I am having fun. After leaving the group and before heading over to pick up DS from tutoring, I decide to stop in one of our local thrift stores, just to look to see if they have anything. Well, I didn't leave empty handed. Look below to see what I got! I love milk glass and white glass/dishes. I saw two of these but one was chipped so I passed on that one and got just the one for $3.99. I love the grape leave design around the edge. I have quite a collection and will share pictures later. Also, I got a small Pyrex dish for $0.59. I love the brown flower detail. It will look great sitting out with all my fall decorations this upcoming season. Then I wondered over to the clothes area. I don't know why and started looking in the children's area. I found a nearly new short sleeve button down Polo($4.99) for DS and 3 adorable dresses for my littlest niece.

Nice Does Matter

Theresa from Garden Antiques has tagged me with the "Nice Matter's" Award. Thanks Theresa, what an honor, even though I'm not sure that I deserve this! The mission of this tag is to pick 7 blogger friends with this award. What a hard task since I visit a lot of blogs and consider them all my favorites. I've decided to pick the following so that you can get to know them:

1. Terri of Lakewood Manor

2. Cindy of Romantic Home

3. Gayla of Oatmeal and Whimsy

4. Julie of Equusvilla

5. Christy of Bon Bon Boutique

6. Tommiea of Tuesday Update

7. Tulip Mom

Please take a moment to visit their blogs. They are all unique in their own rights and you won't be disappointed. Just remember, you may be there several hours because they are all so interesting!

Only 8 More Days

That's all I have until I have to return back to work. I am a teacher and I have enjoyed the time off this summer but I have so much more I want to accomplish before heading back to work. One thing we will be doing next week is taking off for a few days and heading over to New Orleans. DS loves animals and watches Animal Planet quite a bit. He is enthralled with alligators and wants to go on a swamp tour. So being the great parents that we are, we are taking a trip to the Big Easy to do all the touristy things. We will be also hitting the Aquarium, Zoo and Paddle wheel boats along with eating like crazy at fabulous restaurants. We will not be on Bourbon Street! I will be taking pictures and may post some when I get back.

Tonight we are celebrating DH birthday. We will be going to a local restaurant for dinner with friends and family. He turned 40 in July but this was the only time with his work schedule that we could celebrate. Behind the restaurant is a golf driving range so the guys will be having a good time out there. My parents are making the cakes. Yes, two! DH couldn't decide so they are making a banana nut with cream cheese icing and a strawberry with cream cheese icing. For every bodies birthday in my family, my parents make their cake of choice. I have a few last minute running around to pick up some things for tonight. It's going to be fun tonight!

Have a great day!

Visual DNA

You will have to scroll to the bottom of this page to see it. I couldn't figure out how to add it to my post. It kept saying error so I gave up. I took this from Terri's blog. I thought it was cool. Why not give it a try and create your own visual DNA. Have fun!

Took Maggie aka Devil Dog to the vet this morning for her monthly checkup. She is weighing in at around 30 pounds and is about 6 months old. I hope she has stopped growing. Got her all set up with heartworm and flea preventive and her needed vaccinations. Also, she needs ear drops. She has a bad yeast infection in her ears due to all the rain and her love to go swimming at the dog park. So the Doc said that she needs to stay out of the water for several months. Poor thing. She also got a much needed nail trim. She is all ready for her stay at LC's while we are out of town next week.

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!

It's a Good Thing

Have you seen Martha Stewart's new line at Macy's? It looks like she has some good things to offer! Featured categories include birthdays, bath, bedding, dining and entertaining, kitchen, and rugs.

I was sadden when K-mart closed because I loved her line there. I will definitely be heading over to Macys to take a look see.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Five Things

I took this from Tommiea's blog. I have seen it going around so here is my list.

Five things in your refrigerator:
Diet Dr Pepper
Yoplait yogurt Whips
leftover pizza
bottled water
queso dip

Five things in your closet:
46 boxes of shoes
a bunch of cute flip flops along the bottom
many cute handbags
my shirts organized by style(tank, t's, collar, long sleeve in the back)
childhood blanket made by my grandmother.

Five things in your purse or backpack:
cell phone
sunglasses
hair clip
lip gloss/makeup bag
DS's wallet

Five things in your car:
umbrella
ladybug rain clogs
blanket
2 folding chairs
DS's baseball gear

Five things in the world you want to see before you die:
DS graduate HS
DS graduate college
DS getting married
grand kids
travel with family to Greece/Mediterranean area

Why don't you give it a try and make a list. If you do please let me know so that I can come over and read yours.

Have a marvelous Monday!!

Get Gorgeous

My friend LC and I scored an all access pass to pretty with an exclusive makeover from Stila at our local Sephora store. It was a rocking party at Sephora. They had a DJ and several vendors walking around demoing their products. We were dancing in the aisle. Stila was launching their Cover Lookbook Collection, which is so pretty. The gal that did my make up was so sweet and very talented. We chatted and she gave me some pointers to apply and how to enhance my eyes. Plus when she finished my makeup I didn't look like a freaking clown, which has happened at the Lancome counter. I purchased Stila convertible color dual lip and cheek cream in gerbera, see picture. This product looked so natural on it was amazing. After the make-up you could get your photograph taken by a professional which air brushed you and made your picture into a magazine cover. I passed on this but LC gone it done. I told her she needed to take it to school and tell her students she did some modeling this summer! Kindergartners will believe just about anything!

After our make overs we wandered around the store. I picked up some Philosophy bath and shampoo in Melon Daiquiri. And then we ended up at the perfumes. Oh my gosh! We spent so much time sniffing here. It was overwhelming! A Sephora lady came along and helped us. She had this incredible book called The World of Fragrance, which listed all the perfumes and what notes they have and how to find the notes you love, etc. I want this book! But not likely to happen since it cost $150.00. I ended up with a sample of Jadore and LC left with a couple.

We left Sephora and called up our guys to take us out to dinner since we were looking gorgeous. We ended up at Otila's, a local favorite authentic Mexican restaurant. Not my favorite but everyone else enjoyed. I prefer good old Tex-Mex.

So check out your local Sephora to see if Stila is coming and definitely go check out their products. You to can get gorgeous!

There's No Need to Fear

Underdog is Here! That's right. DS and I went to see Underdog last night while DH, LC, Mr. MC and Amanda saw The Simpsons. DS was a little upset that he couldn't see the Simpsons because the movie was rated PG-13 and he isn't 13 yet. Plus a lady at DH office said that movie would not be appropriate for DS. When a movie comes out that is rated PG-13 and DS wants to see, I ask around and get the opinion of others to see if DS can handle it. I know that the TV version of the Simpsons is not appropriate and DS doesn't watch it.

After the movie we grabbed a bite at Logan's Roadhouse. The place is so much fun because they serve buckets of peanuts on the table and then you can throw your shells on the floor. DS thinks its so much fun to throw his shells on the floor.

I have an exciting afternoon planned but will tell more about it tomorrow!

Enjoy your day!

Thank You Notes

A topic that came up with the girls as we were eating and chatting was thank you notes. People just don't send them anymore. You are lucky if you receive an e-mail or they mention it the next time you see them.

I was brought up that it was proper etiquette to write a thank you for gifts I received. My mom would have me take out my cute stationery set and write thank you notes for gifts I received for birthdays and Christmas. My thank yous back then were very short and sweet. Also, my mom wanted us to write the thank you before we could enjoy the gift.

Maybe this started my love of stationery. I love all kinds and styles. I could spend hours in a stationary store or on line store. I just love paper! Nowadays I enjoy making handcrafted cards but if I'm in a bind, I turn to the old stand by of Hallmark or other stationary company.

As I have gotten older and wiser, I will send thank yous for other occasions besides gift that I have received, such as; an interview, guest at a dinner party, when a friend has helped out with a special favor, being a house guest, to the hostess after a party was given in your honor and especially for gifts received in the mail( this lets the sender know that it has arrived).

A thank you note is an expression of appreciation for a thoughtful act, gift or expression. Also, its so nice to go to the mailbox and discover a hand written card is waiting for you to open. Something nice instead of bills and junk mail.

So do you need to send out some thank yous this weekend? I have already mailed mine for the gifts I received Wednesday.

Have a great day!